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Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
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Working on reform
Working on reform Pres. Jimmy Carter and Sen. Frank Church meeting in the White House in 1977. In 1978 Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a direct outgrowth of Church's work.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

FISA: The law that tries to balance national security and civil liberties
Also known as: FISA
Written by
Tracy Grant
Tracy Grant is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. She previously served as editor in chief, the first woman to hold that title. 
Tracy Grant
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

When signed into law in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was seen as a way to impose limits on what, in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was the largely unchecked ability of the federal government to spy on its own citizens. And yet in the early years of the 21st century, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, FISA would be expanded and used to surveil the...

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